Ted Sorensen, Nebraskan, attorney, counselor and speechwriter for John F. Kennedy, witness to history, has died at the age of 82. May he rest in peace. He embodied the most famous line from JFK's inaugural address: "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country." Indeed, it has long been the common understanding that he, not JFK, actually penned it. Modest and wise, however, when asked directly about that he never lied, but he never said "yes," either. He pointed out that Kennedy made the decisions about what his administration and its policies would be, and Kennedy authored the speech. So Sorensen admitted his role without actually admitting it.
Such understatement is typical of the best Nebraska has to offer, and it's one of the main reasons I so like living here even though it's one of the reddest of the so-called "red states." I highly recommend Sorensen's biography, Counselor, to anyone who wants to gain insight into not just American politics, but into the entire world, especially the world of the early 1960s. It was a vastly different place from the world of today. Yet people of good and noble character are as needed now as they ever have been.
Mr. Sorensen, you will be missed. Requiescat in pace.
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